By the numbers, though, we still owe that particular honor to the job of air traffic controllers. Daily, thousands (if not millions) of lives are truly in their hands.

When their mental acuity truly can determine the fate of so many, it is definitely a big deal when the Federal Aviation Administration has a hard time recruiting more to fill the positions as they become vacant. The FAA is having such a hard time, according to the USA Today, that they're resorting to using Craigslist and MySpace to fill the vacancies. You heard that right. MySpace.

Craigslist is nominally understandable, as it's a standby spot used to quickly fill vacancies (even though the FAA admits that folks hired today won't start for almost a year). MySpace, though? I know folks of all ages are on there, but just to put this in perspective, this is the profile of the average person on MySpace:

Sure, you'll know up front what your new hire looks like drunk, stoned, and in the commission of a crime. And absolutely, you're not hiring them for their HTML design skills. But is this really the social network you want to use to fill the position of someone responsible for the lives of so many?

Chris Brogan did a post the other day entitled: Social Media Does Not Replace a Marketing Strategy. The context on that post was slightly different than what we're talking about, but very often when I've talked to my social media clients in the past or advised folks wanting to move their online business presence to the next logical step for themselves, the refrain "social media does not replace a brain" repeats in my head.

MySpace is not the answer, FAA. Have you heard of LinkedIn? Plaxo? Twitter, even? I'm not saying that MySpace is somehow plebeian, but it's like going to a frat party and asking if anyone there can, well, direct air traffic. Go to a network for business professionals (or at least a site where business qualifications are listed) and find someone to fill the positions.

I don't mind if my air traffic controller has a MySpace profile, when it comes down to it, but I'd much prefer that the FAA HR department were looking in a different pond to fish from when it comes to their new hires.

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